Wonderful Opportunity and Dynamite Subjects and despite not quite being able to get the exact formation we wanted, I managed to get all four planes in the frame and reasonably sharp.

But...

Something feels off and I can't nail it down. SO, feel free to tell me why this doesn't feel right?

This was built from two "Smart Object" frames in Photoshop which allowed me to have separate handles on the background and the airframes (essentially, you get raw converter controls for each layer.)
Dropped a mask over the top of the planes (so nothing would show) and then went in and "painted" just the planes in through the mask. Flattened the resulting image and did a High Pass Sharpen layer.
Warmed the resulting .psd file a little once it was back in LR and also put a diagonal gradient of -.50 from upper left toward lower right to reign in the sunset just a little bit more.

Father And Son Moment...
Ryan Pemberton in the Speedmail and his Dad Addison in the Boeing...

http://crosswindimages.com/img/s12/v172/p1049504169-6.jpg

Hey Jay - If I've missed it I apologize, but did you get any tight shots of the B40? The more I look at the lines of that airplane, the more it grows on me. That drawn-out fuselage, with the pilot placed more towards the tail, reminds me of the GeeBee configuration in a very weird sort of way. Obviously such a comparison would be stretch (pun intended), but there is a unique balance to this design that I find most interesting. I guess I'm making a photo post request. Thanks